facticity

To clarify the Sartrean sense of the term used here: facticity is the part of a human that cannot be changed; it is the things he or she has done in the past, that are an indelible part of memory and public appearance. It is the "being" in Being and Nothingness. Facticity is balanced by transcendence, the ability of a human to change his or her self through an act of will. In order to face reality and take full responsibility, one must give due attention to both facticity and transcendence. Ignoring either one causes one to fall into bad faith.

The term "facticity" was originally coined by Martin Heidegger in Being and Time ("Sein und Zeit"). He uses the term in a slightly different sense. Facticity is not synonymous with being, but is fundamentally connected to the being of Dasein. Dasein is always in the world, that is to say, we cannot separate being from "being-in" a world, a situation, a body, even. Facticity is the concrete aspect of Dasein.

Existence cannot be explained as the presence of a transcendental subject which is fundamentally separate from an objective universe. The world of Dasein is an existential structure of its Being.

For more hyphens and untranslatable German words, as well as a modicum of clarity, read some good old Martin.